Key Figures: Mussolini and Hitler

• Mussolini: founder of fascism, ruled Italy 1922 to 1943, allied with Nazi Germany

• Hitler: leader of the Nazi Party, Chancellor of Germany from 1933, radicalized fascism into genocidal ideology

• Both exploited economic despair, national humiliation, and fear of communism

• Both built personality cults and dismantled democratic institutions

• Their alliance in the Axis powers brought the world to war